The consent of the governed.

We already know our president is unfamiliar with the concept of consent. “Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Fortunately for us, his understanding of the concept is irrelevant to the fact that his government derives its power from the consent of the governed.

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to the ends of securing the people’s inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish that government.  “Whenever” does not mean only on Election Day.

What aspect of locking thousands of children in cages and camps secures their lives, their liberty, their pursuits of happiness? Many of these children will never see their parents again.  Can’t we see that this abomination jeopardizes our own and our children’s lives, liberty, and pursuits of happiness? To extrapolate from the oft-quoted poem, it doesn’t get better after they come for defenseless children.  We cannot afford this man’s reckless abuse of power to continue any longer.  The president must resign.

His executive order “reversing” the policy of family separation cannot undo the damage done to these children and their families.  If we accept this “reversal”, we cannot undo the damage done to our nation.  As long as Donald Trump remains president, he disgraces the office, and thereby disgraces us.  He governs by our consent.  We cannot consent to this.

If the president does not resign, the Congress must impeach and remove him.  If the gratuitous torture of thousands of children does not constitute a high crime or misdemeanor, what does?  He does not get a do-over for this.  He does not get to try internment camps on children for size.  This is not his Katrina–it is his Waterloo.

Politicians, even a president, have resigned over less egregious abuses of power.  But the call for this president to resign is conspicuously absent.  Why?  This silence is a toxic byproduct of the gradual erosion of norms of political decency.  We are accustomed to our wacky president doing wacky things.  He expects us to grow accustomed to evil as well.  We cannot consent to this.

The marches planned to protest this administration’s handling of immigration must demand the resignations of the president, the attorney general, and the secretary of homeland security.  We cannot trust or expect them to reunite the families they have torn apart or to keep other families together.  They have proven their vindictive incompetence time and again. 

With these protests, we can reinvigorate our democracy.  We together can fix it.  And it is crucial we do so now, a time when democracy is considered “in retreat”. 

In this country, the people hold the power.  We must remind the president and the Congress that they serve at the pleasure of the American people.  And we are not pleased.